In Other News…

You’d never know it by watching the cable news networks, but there are things happening in places other than Rome:

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) Friday called for stepping up measures in Angola to halt the further spread of the deadly Marburg virus, which has killed 174 people mainly in the north of the country.

The United Nations agency said a first case of the incurable disease had been found in Kuanza Sul, the sixth province in the northwest to be hit, while a suspect death was also under investigation in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

There was an unusually high death rate among the 200 cases identified since October, mainly in the northern town of Uige, with an overwhelming number of initial cases striking children under 5 years old, the WHO said in a statement.

“The situation right now in Angola is not under control yet…This is still a health crisis at the national level and requires a profound commitment both from national authorities and the international community in order to contain this disease,” Mike Ryan, director of WHO’s alert and response operations, told a news briefing.

WHO spokesmen have linked the spread of the disease to a hospital in the northern Angolan city that is the center of this outbreak.